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Ban 4x4s from Lake District, UN urged

High Tilberthwaite farm was once owned by Beatrix Potter; campaigners say 4x4s have ruined the landscape

To Alfred Wainwright, the greatest connoisseur of walking in the Lake District, a small patch of land just north of Coniston Water was perhaps “the loveliest in Lakeland”.

Today that same square mile, once owned by Beatrix Potter, is at the centre of a complaint to the United Nations over claims that the national park is violating its status as a world heritage site by failing to crack down on cavalcades of 4x4s which clamber up and down the fells.

Campaigners said that the cars had devastated farm tracks, stripping back tons of soil to expose the bedrock beneath, and leaving them largely impassable to essential farm vehicles. The drivers insist that they have every right to explore the park, like hikers and mountain bikers,…